C&W completes trials of pre-5G technology in the Caribbean

21 August 2017 | Natalie Bannerman

John Reid, CEO of Cable and Wireless (C&W), has announced that the company has completed trials of pre-5G technology in Antigua.

Once officially rolled out, Antigua will become the first country in the Caribbean on this advanced pre-5G network. Set to deliver peak download speeds of up to 800Mbps, the company has already begun the next trail phase, which is to test a 5G prototype reaching between 2 and 5 Gbps in speeds.

Cable & Wireless’s 5G wireless trials is a joint project with Liberty Global and based on LTE Advanced Pro (also known as 4.5G) which delivers lower latency, increased capacity and improved reliability for customers.

In October of his year, the company has confirmed its intentions to further test a 5G prototype network, designed to deliver wireless data connections of 2Gbps and above. If successful, the company has pledged to invest a further $5 million in Antigua, in addition to the $1.5 billion Cable and Wireless has invested over the last years, in order to further upgrade the country’s infrastructure.

“These are exciting times for C&W Communications, as we continue to invest and develop more pioneering innovations to meet the needs of our customers and enable growth in the region through transformative technology,” said Reid. “This pre-5G trial in the Caribbean, is a significant step towards the evolution of C&W’s mobile networks across the region to 5G, and providing Gigabit speeds to our customers in Antigua,” he added.

Cable & Wireless’ pre-5G trial and 5G prototype trials are part of a partnership with Ericsson, who will provide the equipment and software in Antigua and across the Caribbean.